The Guilty Party

On one hand, yes, it's a little forehead-smacking to read a preview of a game like this that doesn't know about pausing. But everyone has to start somewhere. And if you're starting from, say, Diablo (which at a quick glance PoE looks like) then the concept of pausing to control things is foreign to you and PoE is just going to slaughter you and you're going to say 'wtf is with this game, it's impossible'. This guy's feedback is actually useful. If this is how a new player greets the game, then a gently-ramping (and hopefully skippable for us) tutorial would be very helpful. Now, that sort of tutorial doesn't really make sense in a Beta so in that sense, he's kind of off-base with his complaints. But I'd rather not have one of my favorite game-styles (isometricish pauseable rpgs) turn into some dwindling niche because no one new ever gets into it due to a cliff-like learning curve.

To be snarky, most people use 'realistic' to mean 'things I like' and 'unrealistic' to mean 'things that I don't like'. To actually address your point, there's a certain suspension of disbelief that's important. We're willing to suspend disbelief more when the foreign thing is more alien and mysterious. That is to say, we don't actually know what a Wizard can do. If you present in a internally consistent way, most people will give it a pass. It's magic, it's part of the agreement we made when we picked up a book with an orc riding a unicorn on the cover. If you violate something that we know how it works, suddenly that snaps us out of it. We'll accept that a wizard can levitate a pillar with his mind, but the thought that some dude who is not magical can just go pick up a 2 ton block of stone offends our sense of logic. But there's another layer going on here: crpg players have, in general, learned to tolerate a fair amount of unrealistic things in the name of Fun Game Time. And this is where the real trouble starts, because everyone has a different line where on one side, it's just a game, and on the other side, you ruined the game because you made it seem just ridiculous.

Normally I do a playthrough right away because I can't wait, and then wait for a beefy patch to do it again. However, this time I'm leaving on vacation a day before it comes out, so here's hoping for some awesome week 1 and 2 patches!

I don't think the IE games really work well with the MMO-style 'tank, dps, controller, healer' approach. Aggro wasn't a hate meter that you have to keep maxed with aggro-gaining attacks, it was generally just some (potentially crappy) script. If you really want the only one person to be attacked (like with the Shield of Balduran and beholders) I generally only sent that character out into battle. It's more like 'Dps, controller, healer', if anything. You want to start fights by disabling as many enemies as you can (usually with your wizard or priest). Fighters and Paladins aren't really tanks, they're beefy damage dealers. If monsters start peeling away from the main melee, you need to have some spells prepared to stun/hold/instantly kill them. Or summon some meat to slow them down a bit.

Normal arrows you shouldn't have to track. It's just tedious. But you can have infinite normal arrows and still have special fire/polymorph/danceparty arrows as well, no reason to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

I think there is real enjoyment and fun to be had from crawling through some long dungeon and then finding an awesome item at the end that does cool stuff that no other weapon does and makes you noticeably more powerful. But there is a definite risk of magic inflation. As much as I like BG2, the items were getting a bit ridiculous in the end. I don't know the solution to this, but I hope it's not just 'you got a long sword +1! woo!'

I agree with this. I'm okay with having every priest get a free heal/restore/whatever spell (since I think new people would be too prone to screw themselves over without it), but I'd rather pick spells than have them all dumped on me.

Thank you! Deleting the corrupt files took some effort but once I got rid of them, suddenly I could start the game. Much appreciated!

I have windows 8.1 and an intel cpu and nvidia graphics card, having the same issue. Also have a creative sound card, maybe that's the problem?

I'm not saying the current system doesn't need tweaks, but just because something is not D&D does not make it bad. It's new, it's something you have to learn as opposed to having it already known, but change can be a good thing. Plus D&D stats were never particularly balanced or sensible, it's just inertia that has kept them around, imho.

I backed the kickstarter and do not have the green-k badge. Thanks!

Yep, I'm having the same problem, posted here http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/67315-crash-on-new-game/ . No solution that I know of, unfortunately.

Tried a few more times with various setup options after repairing the data files in Steam, still nothing.

Launch game. Click new game. Wait for 'Obsidian Entertainment Presents' to fade away. I start hearing crickets and birdcalls, see a mouse pointer that I can freely move around. Screen is 100% black. Game has crashed. I have tried three times (once in Windowed mode at a lower resolution, twice at my normal desktop resolution in full screen), each time the same result. Dxdialog and one of the crash report folders (zipped) attached. dxdiag.txt 2014-08-19_175414.zip

I feel minigames like that fit better in a single-person game: you're the one doing the lockpicking, so you have to actually perform the actions. In a party game, a plain skillcheck is fine by me.

This really requires story/plot support. You can non-lethal punch people all day long, but if the story is waiting for you to strike the killing blow, then you'll never get all these 'but I don't want to kill him!' choices you're looking for.

Ehh it's kind of like arrows. It's neat to be able to augment with special stuff, but day-to-day 'I need to maintain a stack of things that are very easy to come by' is just sort of tedious.

I dislike Kiting and Pulling. They feel awkward and game-y and are generally tedious. I'm okay with reasonable dividing-their-forces behavior. If there's some patrolling guard, making some little noise to grab him around the corner and then bashing his head in: good planning. Inching forward on the map to reveal one monster in a group of monsters so that only it responds when you shoot it? Lame.

Some abstracted terrain bonuses/penalties would be cool. I'm on board for that. More damage for archers on hills, better defense for being in a bush, slower movement for certain terrains. Adds an extra dimension to combat without adding control complexity.

I think many, many players will see this as 'I did the right thing, and after 8 hours of going through the Mage's tower, I got back and everyone was dead. Screw this game'. I am sympathetic to the desire for a simulated world where you have to live with the consequences of your actions, and to a game that's different when you replay it. But the way most games are designed (i.e., with reasonable save systems), random chance of suck is just arbitrary punishment. There has to be a better way of doing it. What that is, I don't know. Alpha Protocol actually tried for this, with their checkpoint-only saving system. Not sure it really succeeded though. It's tough to balance Choice with I Have A Real Life and Need To Be Able to Pick Up And Put Down This Game When It Is Good For Me.

I dunno. It sounds good in theory, but when you place it in a video game, suddenly it becomes a case of getting the best result by taking the risky-but-high-reward outcome and just reloading until it succeeds. From that perspective, it's not a lot of fun. You're saying 'Save yourself some time and accept the slightly worse results, or reload half a dozen times and guarantee your character a better result'.

I contributed to the development of an RPG, not a real estate simulator.

BG had Larry, Darryl and Darryl, but yes. On the whole, things like this should be hard to find easter eggs, not prominently displayed.

Depressing endings are no better, more mature, or more interesting than happy endings. Both are simplistic. In stories that are worth experiencing, victory comes at a cost, and failure comes with a lesson.

I prefer a low-magic, slightly less gear-dependent world. BUT I also like to spend some effort and time and unearth some kick-ass items once in a while, you know? It's a fantasy world, not a 15th century simulator. So, no +5 spears on the random results table, but yes to wielding the Broken Spear of Ygranabrkoth as a short-sword that is infused with the blood of those it has slain and burns like acid and you found it in some holy shrine where you had to slay a bunch of innocent-but-deadly monks to get it.